The Durant ad uses images from the Hoekstra commercial that drew national attention for its perceived use of racial stereotypes.

“Congressman Pete Hoekstra claims to know a lot about China. Does he know the Chinese word for hypocrisy,” the commercial questions as the Asian-American actress from Hoekstra's ad pedals her bike through a rice paddy field.

Durant says Hoekstra's record mirrors Stabenow's as both voted to increase the debt ceiling and hike U.S. spending by trillions.

He points out the nine-term representative's votes for the Wall Street bailout, a move Hoekstra has said was to prevent the collapse of the country's economic system.

“I'm tired of politicians who put America at risk,” Durant says in the ad. “Let's take our country back.”

Durant, after the press conference, said he decided to make an ad buy after seeing Hoekstra's campaign pitch that "demeans people, misleads the public and is hypocritical on Stabenow's spending."

"I realized it reflected everything that is wrong with Washington," said Durant, who polling shows to be Hoekstra's top competition for the Republican nod to take on Stabenow. "I couldn't sit on the sideline and let it go.

"I didn't want to attack anybody, but I want people to know that their voting records on the most fundamental of issues are nearly identical."

Durant said he also didn't like the name-calling by Hoekstra.

"We need to have serious conversations because our country has serious debt and serious issues that need to be addressed," Durant said.

Hoekstra's spokesman Paul Ciaramitaro said the campaign had no response to Durant's commercial. They're focusing on Stabenow, who was also the target of a second commercial that also debuted Thursday.

In that ad, which will go into regular rotation of the television buy, Hoekstra goes after Stabenow's spending habits and his belief that she's harming the country.

With the backdrop of the sun rising over the U.S. Capital building,
Hoekstra narrates “in spite of what the media says, this race is really our chance to
tell Washington to spend it not.”

“It's wasteful government spending versus American jobs,” said Hoekstra, who is shown in front of the same fire from the first ad.
“There's no more room for Debbie Spenditnow.”

The commercial cites President Barack Obama's healthcare plan that
cost $2.5 trillion, claims the federal stimulus cost the country 2.6
million jobs and says funding to energy firm Solyndra resulted in $535
million “mostly lost.”

"Debbie Stabenow must be held accountable," Hoekstra said in a statement
today. "Her big-spending policies have shackled job creators, increased
our reliance on China, threatened our national security, and put
America on the path to bankruptcy.